Fortunately and unfortunately as a patient, we have very little time to get to know all our nurses or to have our nurses know us.
I have been hospitalized three times at St. Anthony North. I am 91 years young and had only been hospitalized over 40 years ago until this year.
Sarah was my first nurse in a new cardiac unit. She asked me how I would like to be addressed and called me by my shortened name. At age 80 I found out my name was actually not my full given name. As a patient who was not herself, I really needed to have someone call me by the name I knew rather than a legal name I hardly knew.
Sarah always has a smile for her patients and the family. Sarah took a lot of time to explain things to me and always looked at me when speaking to me to get my attention. I need to mention that most of my life I was totally deaf and still rely on reading lips - I don't sign much because of arthritis in my hands and I am not around many people who sign. I do wear a transference aid in one ear, as I have no "mechanics" in the other ear due to a mastoid many years ago.
As you can see I came to your facility with many challenges and a new diagnosis.
All of these challenges Sarah was able to deal with. Sarah was also my nurse on my second admission and gave me reassurance that my nurse "knew" me.
I appreciate her knowledge of knowing what she knows. I asked Sarah what kind of nurse she was and she said, "I am doing what I do for you". I appreciated her care for me (which was diverse), her compassion, her empathy for my family, her respect, her tireless answering of call lights and answering the same question again and again. But, most of all we want to say that you for your smile we saw first and last.